The Buffet - Issue 2

Art: Sam Delacruz < A>

Buffet The

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2

This issue’s cover food is the durian, a fruit so fowl in smell, that it is banned on public transport in much of East Asia. Despite the stench, it is considered something of a delicacy in Thailand and was described by naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace as, “A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds..., but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind creamcheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes.” We thought it tasted mainly like gasoline, although he may have been onto something with the onion sauce description.

Editor’s Letter Morley Musick

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Food VS. Samantha Delacruz

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To Start Staff

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Cinnamon Challenge Muhammad Shareef

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Restaurant Profile

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Food Log

Ian McCann

Michelle Bozenda

Fodder Noah Asimow

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Nature’s Check on Deliciousness Ahmed Akhtar

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Smorgasboard

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Staff

So You Wanna Eat Moose? Ariel Miller

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Excerpts Morley Musick

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In Our Hearts, a Fork Tiffany Wong

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Staff Photo

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Dream Fruit Nick Hill, Liam Garner

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Photo: Di ego Rodri guez

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Food

versus Sam Delacruz

Food

If you ask any in-the-know Chicagan for a sushi recommendation, they will likely point you to either

Toro or Blue Ocean. With good prices, incredible sushi, and a refreshing lack of snobbery, these two sushi joints are more than qualified to battle for the position of Number 1. But, life being a competition which must be won (I kid!), I had to find out which one comes out on top.

As a hardcore sushi fan, I will try almost any kind of roll, but for this challenge I decided to

go with a tried and true fave, the spicy tuna. I decided to use the spicy tuna roll as the benchmark for quality because the simplicity of this roll means that the sushi chefs must go to great lengths to make it stand out from the sea of blah sushi that exists in Chicago. I ordered a Spicy Tuna Crunch and 2 pieces of hamachi nigiri (raw yellowtail over plain rice) and the reviewing began. A good sushi roll depends on the quality of the individual components, as well as the overall composition of the roll, and, for student diners, the price. Toro and Blue Ocean’s rankings are as follows.

Toro

Blue Ocean

Quality of Fish: Clean, fresh, slightly bland, smooth and soft

Quality of Fish: Fresh, slightly more fishy, tougher than Toro

Quality of Rice: Firm, sticky, no vinegar after-taste, good rice to sushi balance

Quality of Rice: Slightly too sticky, but flavorful. Not quite enough rice in the nigiri

Components of Maki: Creative, light, cohesive, and flavorful

Components of Maki: Savory, filling, heavy, flavorful

Price: $5 for nigiri, $7.50 for maki

Price: $3 for nigiri, $15 for maki

While it’s clear that both of these restaurants are good in their own right, Toro had a couple important subtleties that made it stand out. This, coupled with the lower pricing, made Toro the clear winner.

Illustration Phoebe Randall

The theme of this issue of “The Buffet” was originally intended to be “Fruta Exotica”. And, if you take a quick glance at the cover, it still is. However, the meaning behind this fateful Spanish phrase has changed; it has gained more depth, more flavor. What was originally intended to be an issue centered around the fruits of the tropics has turned into an issue centered around something much stranger. It has become an issue marked by steps into previously un-tread high-school culinary literature territory. This issue contains a scientific piece, a spiritual piece, a historical piece, fiction, puzzles and all sorts of things we previously had never dreamed of making about in relation to food. We buffet-ers are beginning to experience the thrill that comes from looking at food from not only the “does it taste good” perspective, but also from the perspective that considers its chemical composition, how it affects our culture, how it makes us feel, and why, sometimes, we can’t swallow the truth (see Cinnamon Challenge, pg 6). We invite you to join us on this eating expedition, as we open our mouths, close our eyes and welcome into our bellies the lesser known delicacies; “Las Frutas Exoticas!”

Morley Musick

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Michelle Bozenda T he Buf fet

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Umair Hamid and Nick Parker

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The Buffet recently interviewed Northside Security Guard Manuel Campo Verda, better known as Manny. Manny revealed that before he was a security guard, he was a chef for the Italian Kitchen for 16 years.

4. “Have you ever went over to a friend’s house to eat and the food just ain’t no good? I mean the macaroni’s soggy, the peas are mushed, and the chicken tastes like wood.” Sugarhill Gang, Rappers Delight

Chewing the Fat with Manny Campovera

Where are you from? I am from Ecuador, but when kids ask me where I am from I say the middle of the world because I want them to know where the middle of the world is.

(HAHAHAHA) Is it true that Ecuadorians eat guinea pigs? If so have you had any yourself? Yes, it is a favorite food for Ecuadorians.

I’ve had guinea pigs too many times, almost twice a month. I recently had a whole guinea pig to myself in the last two weeks.

If you have tasted a chicken leg, it is almost the same flavor as a chicken leg. Guinea pigs go well with potato, salad, and sometimes pine nuts. illustration: Nora Hardy

Tasty Hip Hop Lyrics

Umair Hamid

5. “Mmm, fried chicken, fly vixen, Give me heart disease but need you in my kitchen.” – Nas, Fried Chicken

3. “A heapin’ helpin’ of fried chicken, macaroni and cheese and collard greens, Too big for my jeans.” Goodie Mob, Soul Food 4. “Am I really just a narcissist, ‘Cause I wake up to a bowl of lobster bisque?” - Rick Ross, “I Love My Women” 1. ”Paper chasin’, tell that paper, ‘Look I’m right behind ya’, B**** , real Gs move in silence like lasagna.” Lil wayne, 6 foot 7 foot Illustation: Ezra Edgerton

To Start

Rejected Names for the Northside Cafeteria

• • • • • • •

The Hoof Eat Mustang Johnson’s Bar and Grille Cookies, Extra Rare Plastic Cantina The Trough Horsey Joe’s; A Pony Place Burger Jester

- Morley Musick

Throughout the ages, mankind has created challenges designed to test the limits of the human body.The Romans had gladiators. Medieval knights had jousting tournaments. Iron Man competitions and marathons are gaining popularity in the modern era. But these are all challenges taken by the weak; these are challenges that require no skill. There is only one true challenge and it can only be conquered by children who were raised drinking the blood of gods! In the history of mankind, only a select few have been able to stomach a full spoonful of cinnamon without the aid of a liquid; only a select few have been able to overcome the great beast that is the “Cinnamon Challenge”!

Why is the Cinnamon Challenge so difficult? The first, and most obvious reason is that it was created to truly separate those who have transcended mortality from the garbage known as humanity. But aside from this, one of the main reasons is that cinnamon contains small amounts of capsaicin, a substance that falls under the chemical category of astringents. Astringents, which are responsible for the burning sensation in spices, can denature the proteins in saliva, effectively making it useless. Additionally, capsaicin has a long hydrocarbon tail, which makes it much less water soluble and therefore much harder to swallow.

The cinnamon will generally stay in powder form in people’s mouths causing them to choke.

Now, I know that you may be thinking to yourself that with this knowledge, you may be able to find a way to conquer this daunting challenge. However, I urge you to stop what you’re thinking, drop everything, and go back to work. Don’t be foolish.

This is madness...The Cinnamon Challenge leaves no survivors Infographic - Daniel Vasquez

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A Somewhat Complete Journal of Things I Ate while on the Japan TriP Michelle Bozenda

R E S T A U R A N T P R O F I L E - Ian McCann

Taco Place Steak House Avg. Meal Price - $7 2114 W. Lawrence Ave Lawrence (81) to Lawrence and Hoyne Imagine this: you are in the mood for Mexican and have been starving since midday. You have been hopping from Mexican restaurant to Mexican restaurant, and all you want to do is eat some Mexican food that packs a punch, for a price that an average Northsider can afford.

Every Mexican restaurant is either so expensive that you are rudely turned away for lack of funds, or it’s affordable, but the tacos are bland and you can’t stomach more than one bite.

(Before you ask how you can afford multiple cheap Mexican restaurants, but not one expensive one, let’s just say that it’s magic.) All of a sudden, when you are about to give up and call it a night, stepping back into the cold, a famished man or woman, you try one last place. This last place is affordable, with prices not above $16 , and a special “Red Sauce” that adds flavor to every taco. You eat. You are happy about this place, and you retire to your home and bed a victorious and full man or woman, determined to go back to that place. That place is Taco Place Steak House.

I went to this place over the weekend on the way back from school.

It is about 3 blocks from my house, but in all of my 7 years of living in the neighborhood I have never once been there. It looks rather unassuming from an outside view, being situated between a spirituality store and a playlot, and announcing itself only by an orange sign with an im

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illustration: Jordan Micus

age of an avocado and a cowboy hat.

The inside, however, is anything but ignorable. I found it to be rather snug and cozy, almost house-like. It was empty except for me and one other soul. I ordered a Pepsi, two chicken tacos, and one Al Pastor taco.

The Pepsi tasted, well, like Pepsi, except that it was delivered in a bottle that the lady had already opened.

I seem to encounter this kind of quality service only in restaurants like these. Then came the chips and salsa. These were gorgeous works of culinary art. They were a little bit greasy, which might be on the surface bad, but it shows that the chef has prepared them at least in some way, and that they were not simply coming out of a store-bought bag.

The salsa, out of everything, was the most average piece of food that I can describe. It was green and came in a clear squirting bottle. In my opinion, it could have been thicker and a little bit spicier, but in no Mexican restaurant are the chips and salsa intended to be the highlight of the meal.

Then came the tacos. I first ate one of the Chicken tacos, and I was mindblown! The chicken was prepared in a red marmalade that raised the flavor bar for being savory, as well as having the benefit of being slightly sweet and spicy. That, coupled with it being composed of such a full meat as chicken, made it perfect with a

flour tortilla. I had thought that I had entered culinary heaven.

I was soon proven wrong. I took a bite of the Al Pastor taco, which was, hands down, the pinnacle of “taconess”. It had the same marinade and flour tortilla as the chicken taco had, but was made with pork, which comes from the same animal that becomes bacon. as you may know. The cilantro and green onions provided their own spice to the mix, making this a spicy taco, indeed. The flour tortilla also provided some “insulation” to the spiciness, making this a balanced and well-rounded treasure.

If I have one bad thing to say about the place, it’s that the lights of the bathroom are on the wall outside, which proved to be something of an inconvenience.

There are several Mexican restaurants in my area, but this one is hands down the best.

There is a much bigger taco restaurant no more than two blocks away, but those tacos are bland and uninteresting, and I would rather pay $1,000 dollars for one of these tacos than have one of those for free!

Rating: 3.5 Paulas

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Boiled Broccoli Butter Beans Brussel Sprouts Bacon

Banana Bread Baked Alaska Biscuits Brisket

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Chef Bundt has left town! Luckily, he left directions for the order that foods should be placed in the buffet. Unluckily, he left them in the form of a rather convoluted puzzle that Noah cannot solve himself. Below is the list of buffet foods:

’s

Na tu

Noah Asimow

Ch

ss

FODDER

lc i o u s e D n ne o k c e

Blackened Cod Brown Butter Betty Beef Bourgogne

ed A hm

r hta k A

T Illustration: Alex Kritikos

Using the following directions, help Noah set up the buffet in the correct order!

1) Chef Bundt’s directions said the food should be grouped by type-vegetables, meats and fish, desserts, and breads. I agree that this is a good idea, but technically beans are not a green veggie, so I figured they would be a better fit next to the other food with butter in its name.

2) Chef Bundt said his Jewish grandmother would be upset if the brisket didn’t come before the beef Bourgogne.

3) Also, to keep things “kosher,” (and the Jewish grandmother’s happy) the bacon cannot be next to the brisket. It must be next to the cod.

4) Chef Bundt said brussel sprouts make his nana gassy, so they should not be placed next to her beloved brisket.

5) OOOPS! I thought baked Alaska was a meat dish, but according to Bundt, it is a dessert.

Luckily, it is sandwiched in between the meats and desserts anyway.

6) The banana bread, being many people’s favorite dish, must be placed as far away from the brussel sprouts as possible.

7) Southern lore dictates that butter beans and biscuits complement one another, so they should be placed next to each other.

The first person who sends in the correct order of dishes to northsidebuffet@gmail.com gets lunch anywhere in the city, courtesy of Chef Bundt (good for up to $15). Good Luck!

Answers in next issue.

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wo years ago, I became terribly sick. My stomach ached like an old woman’s shinbones. I vomited constantly, and the waste produced by my body became a topic of discussion for alien conspiracy theorists.

My parents, worried for my health, took me to a nearby clinic. I told the doctor, who seemed preoccupied with some teriyaki beef, about all of my different aches and pains. In response to my pained grumblings, the doctor said “You might have...,” pausing to gulp down a last brown morsel, “...food poisoning.” Then, I threw up on his shoes. I was distressed. Food poisoning is, after all, the nightmare of every foodie - not because of the symptoms so much as the treatment. The “treatment”, if it can even be called that, is that the patient is prohibited from ingesting solid foods. That means no carryout, Chinese, clams, carrots, canned goods, or anything other solid comestibles that begin with a “c” or any other letter in the alphabet. The recovery process is slow: the treatment lasts a few days. The long hours spent rehabilitating could make ramen seem like fine cuisine.

To reiterate what my doctor told me, food poisoning is caused by eating food that contains certain types of bacteria or viruses (such as Salmonella, E Coli, and Listeria), usually from feces.

And, not having consumed feces any time in my recent past, I could not help but wonder; how did these bacteria get inside me? It turns out that, in most cases, feces bacteria travel through the air in unkempt slaughter houses. This airborne bacteria can then land on meat, thus contaminating it. Meat processing facilities use a variety of filtration devices to reduce the spread of pathogens from the air, but even with the most advanced systems, which can reduce Salmonella enteritidis contamination up to 95%, there is still 5% of the original bacteria floating around. Such bacteria could, unfortunately still find their way onto your dinner plate. Dirty kitchens can also contribute to food borne illness. Raw or undercooked meats and dairy that have been left out too long are breeding grounds for the bacteria responsible for food poisoning. Obviously your thawed steak can’t create life, but it’s relatively easy for germs to get onto animal products, especially if you’re a generally filthy person. Unless the right precautions are taken, those bacteria will evolve faster than Zangoose in Pokémon Platinum.

However, until recently, nobody had a clue as to why people would get sick from eating spoiled food. In fact, the most basic processes of sanitizing food came about with advancements in “germ theory”. Germ theory is the theory that diseases were caused by tiny organisms and is behind some of the biggest advancements in food preparation. French Chemist Louis Pasteur developed much of the theory and came up with the process of pasteurization, which involves heating liquids to prevent them from causing disease. The process showed people that it was tiny organisms, germs, that caused illness could be killed using heat.

Nowadays, this knowledge is almost universal, yet millions of cases of food borne illness still occur.

This is truly a shame as these ailments can so easily be prevented through good hygienic practices. The extra work definitely matters because being food poisoned is horrible. It’s like putting your taste buds into a coma and your stomach into a wine stomping barrel. The fact that it still happens with such frequency today (the CDC estimates somewhere around 48 million Americans a year get a foodborne illness) is terrible, considering that there are many easy ways to prevent it. If there’s one message I’d like to get across to all the guys in the food business reading “The Buffet”, it’s to go that extra mile in ensuring that what you put out is clean. Also, use more crazy straws; I don’t know why that one isn’t obvious.

Art: Nora Hardy

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the

Smorgasboard

Big and Little’s

La Chapala

Noah Asimow

Lying on a quiet strip of Orleans is Big & Little’s, a burger/po’ boy joint that serves up delectable sandwiches of all varieties. While Big & Little’s may appear from the outside to be nothing more than a hole in the wall, the warm, mead-hall like atmosphere is inviting and lively. Seating is communal, with the only seating option being one of four lengthy wooden tables. The burgers, led by the titanic “Zeus” are nothing less than Herculean in size, with toppings ranging from feta, fried eggs, and tzatziki sauce. However, the massive fish Po’ Boys are the stars of the show. Full of crispy fish and briny pickles, they mix the taste of the sea with the comfort of fried batter.

4 Paulas Avg. Meal Price - $11 860 North Orleans Street, Brown or Red Line to Chicago

The Zeus Sandwich, Photo: Diego Rodriguez

Pista House

The average passerby could easily cast off La Chapala as merely another neighborhood supermercado. However, this grocery store is far from ordinary, for deep within, behind racks of fruit, baby formula, and tortillas, is a tiny gem of a taqueria that serves everything from quesadillas to whole-chicken dinners. Taco meat options range from the ordinary asada, which is arguably one of the best tasting steak tacos in Rogers Park, to the less ordinary lengua (tongue) and cabeza (head) tacos. Tortas are also a tasty option. Several authentic Mexican drinks are on tap, including horchata, agua de Jamaica, a drink made from Hibiscus flowers, and agua de piña, a pineapple drink. This hidden eatery does not disappoint with its cheap prices, generous servings, and exquisite Mexican cuisine.

3 Paulas, Avg. Meal Price - $6 7117 N Clark Street, Clark (22) Bus to Clark and Touhy La Chapala

Photo: Diego Rodriguez

Danish Noorani

Pista House is best known as the brother restaurant to Ghareeb Nawaz, a restaurant infamous for its flavorful, cheap food that may be responsible for hundreds of cases of food borne illnesses each year. Pista House, translating oddly to Pistachio House, is like a turbo Ghareeb Nwaz both in deals and oddity. The walls of Pista House, in the spirit of the restaurant’s namesake, are painted an odd sort of faded, yet also neon, shade of green. The ceiling is adorned with green Christmas lights with one odd blue light in the corner. The lighting creates a peculiar alien like environment, much like the environment at Ghareeb Nawaz. However, unlike Ghareeb Nawaz, the kitchen is visible, which gives the customer something of a (false!) sense of security about the restaurant’s cleanliness. The deals such as five samosas for $1, a miraculously tasty and huge chicken biryani for $5, and the restaurant’s famous chicken parathas for $3 make you question where the restaurant might be getting its food, or how it can be so delicious. Overall, if you’re in the mood for great Indian food, have a strong stomach, and want to spend less than you would at McDonald’s, then Pista House is the place to go.

Rating: 2.5 Paulas, Avg. Meal Price - $3 2032 West Devon Avenue, Devon (155) Bus to Devon and Hoyne Chicken Paratha Photo: Diego Rodriguez

Wing Hoe

Diego Rodriguez

Bode Faleti

It is 3:14 on Friday and I’m starting to experience that wonderful feeling of relief that comes at the end of a long school week.

I’m craving a meal that will keep me satisfied through the night. Wing Hoe is, frequently, the answer to my belly’s prayers.

Located near the Berwyn Red-Line Station (at the corner of Sheridan and Balmoral), this Chinese restaurant will provides a wide range of Chinese classics. I, myself, usually order fried rice but there are many other tasty options for the average Asian food lover. Wing Hoe offers over twenty types of soups, fried rice dishes, and noodle dishes. Wing Hoe and I know that you wouldn’t like to enjoy this food alone (unless you have to for “certain reasons”) and for this reason, the restaurant offers several family style dinners for parties of 2 or more. Overall, the price of the food is above average but ultimately a deal due to the massive portions. You and your stomach won’t be disappointed.

Rating: 2.5 Paulas Avg. Meal Price - $7 5356 N Sheridan Rd, Foster (92) to Sheridan

Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse

Morley Musick

When my friend and I decided to go to Michael Jordan’s steakhouse, we were kind of hoping that it would be something like a Chuck E. Cheeses for wealthy adults who really like Michael Jordan. Instead, we were met by the sight of a dull, but classy restaurant that could have been owned by absolutely anyone in any fancy hotel in any city. The menu here can be described in about the same light. Aside from a ridiculously delicious Jenga tower of cheese soaked garlic bread, the food here was entirely unmemorable. The 23 ingredient “shrimp garbage salad” was as bland as it was fresh, so I guess that could be considered a good thing for some people? The lobster-squash soup came in a bowl shallow enough to meet the needs of, at best, a cat, and tasted like canned pumpkin infused with liquid smoke. We didn’t try it, but I’m fairly sure the steak tasted like the steak at every other steakhouse (don’t hurt me steak lovers!) and whatever benefits that could possibly arise from having 23 layers on a chocolate cake were dashed by the fact its thin layers were bone dry. While the waiters here were extremely kind to the only two teenagers eating at this restaurant, it says a lot that the best thing that my friend could say about this restaurant was that it didn’t make us sick. Incidentally, it also says a lot about the kind of restaurants we can normally afford to eat at.

Rating: 2 Paulas Avg. Meal Price -$25 505 N.Michigan Ave Lakeshore (145, 146, 151) Bus to Michigan and Illinois Garlic Bread Tower illustration: Alex Kritikos

Photo: Diego Rodriguez

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SO YOU WANNA

Ariel Miller

You can’t buy moose meat in a grocery store, so the first thing you’ll need is a rifle and, if you’re wise, a plane ticket to Alaska, the unofficial moose hunting capital of the U.S. Moose hunting is so big in Alaska that many residents take week-long vacations in September with the sole intention of hunting moose.

For Chicagoans, it may be hard to comprehend the culture of hunting. The only wild animals we have here are the occasional stray raccoon or opossum. Here at hyper-liberal Northside, hunters are often thought of as beer-chugging, super-patriots with NRA bumper stickers on their pickup trucks. Knut Kielland, my uncle, falls far outside of this stereotype. Born and raised in Norway, where moose hunting is even more popular than in Alaska, he’s now a professor of arctic biology at University of Alaska Fairbanks.

He has a genial, goofy sense of humor, a keen understanding of animals, and a Mountain-Man-like resourcefulness. He plays banjo with great skill and tells wonderful stories in his lyrical Norwegian accent.

“It’s hard to understand how strong the tradition of moose hunting is in Alaska when you don’t live here,” he wrote me in an e-mail. “Moose-meat is standard food at practically any potluck we go to. If someone is old or sick, it is common for people to bring them a little gift of frozen moose meat when they visit.” He told me a story about how one man seated next to my aunt on a bus started a conversation by asking, “Did you get your moose yet?”

Despite how common it is to eat moose in Alaska, it takes a great deal of skill to actually hunt one down. “Sneaking up on a moose is very tricky because they have very good hearing and a keen sense of smell. You have to be aware which way the wind is blowing. If a moose smells you, he will most likely leave,” says Knut. He told me that the best way to get a bull moose to come to you is to make “moose noises.” Moose scrape their antlers on trees to attract mates, and humans can simulate these sounds by knocking moose shoulder blade bones against tree trunks. Once, a moose confused the sound of Knut splitting firewood with a moose sound and wandered toward his camp. One can also make a moose call, a sound like a long, guttural “moo.” YouTube has many hilarious videos from which you can learn how to make this call.

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illustration:Jordan Micus

EAT MOOSE? Once you shoot your moose, a process that can take weeks, you have to transport it home.

Alaskan law prohibits taking the best parts of the meat and leaving the rest, so getting the massive animal home can be something of an ordeal, especially when some of the larger pieces can weigh close to 100 pounds. However, the process is usually worth it, as basically all parts of a moose are edible--Knut cites jellied moose nose and moose head soup as examples, though his favorite is moose heart. A moose will feed a family of four and their friends all winter with enough left-overs for moose-jerky in the spring. Alternatively, the state of Alaska provides a service that allows hunters to donate their moose to charities, which will serve the meat in soup kitchens.

The moose has had its whole life in the wild, living free and happy.

Then one beautiful fall day: boom, he's dead.

Animal lovers might balk at the idea of shooting wild animals, but Aunt Tricia voices a different take: “I think that moose-meat is much healthier than any meat you can buy in the store. The moose has had its whole life in the wild, living free and happy. Then one beautiful fall day: boom, he’s dead. Compare this to the life of a cow or a pig or a chicken in captivity. The moose has it much, much better.” Ultimately, Knut says, “...Hunting is, of course, the prospect of obtaining good food. I think this is true for most other hunters in Fairbanks. We all like to get out in the woods, enjoy nature and the companionship of friends, as well as the opportunity to obtain healthy, natural foods.”

So I guess the real question is, are you ready to get your moose?

Check out some traditional moose preparations on northsidebuffet.com

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Excerpts

This month’s excerpt comes from the wildly popular child rearing book “Goo-Goo Ga-Ga! Ensuring Successful Progeny Through Regulated Infantile Diet Modification”.

Published Date: 1924. Restoration: Yelrom Kcisum Below is a short list of foodstuffs that is widely agreed upon to improve the motor skills and mental faculties of most infants.

Wine - Babies who are exposed to small amounts of wine while in the womb can become fluent in French two to six weeks after birth.

In our Heart of Hearts, a Fork

Tiffany Wong

My father is masterful in his craft, of mattress springs, of new-old Chinese maxims, of stories bathed in nostalgia. He ruminates in solitude throughout the morning, taking little interest in his breakfast bun. The jasmine tea he pours when he wakes remains in his cup all day.

But every so often, I glimpse the purple center of his artichoke heart, unpeeled by the steam of my mother’s kitchen. Never do I see him as charismatic and interested and exuberantly funny as when I sit down to eat a meal next to him. He always claims that food from prewar Vietnam was better. “The lobsters were bigger.” “The soup noodles were smoother.” He says this even after burping off the most delicious of meals.

When I was younger, I had no sense of the relationship between my father and mother. It so little resembled the American portrayal of marriage that I could not recognize the nugget of love buried beneath the surface slash at her cooking. Rather, I fumbled with my chopsticks, eyes wide at the prospect of slipperier noodles. My mother shared in this selective memory of her country.

Puffer fish - This will ensure the baby has poison immunity.

Cylinder of glowing uranium - Something good has come of this a number of times.

Stones - These will toughen up the baby in a general sort of way.

Carrots - Highly nutritious. May also land your child a role as an Oompa Loompa if the babe is fed carrots in sufficient quantities. (Doctor’s Tip: If, as a parent, you are set on your child becoming an Oompa Loompa, you may need to take measures to ensure that they never exceed a height of three feet and six inches. See Doctor Trindine’s Best Seller - Why can’t my child stop growing already? A Beginners Guide to Enforced Elfism. - for further reference.)

Edible twigs and berries - The baby will easily remember the taste of these items and will, in turn, be able to successfully forage in the wild.

Spider webs - It was recently discovered that babies who eat spider webs are actually able to capture enemies with the regurgitated spindle fibers.

Spittle from famous people - Babies exposed to celebrity liquids are more likely to become celebrities themselves.

Collecting spittle from attractive people is also believed to be beneficial.

Crushed diamonds - Nothing can crush a diamond, so if you can somehow feed your infant crushed diamonds, there is a good chance that your are a superhero and that your progeny also has supernatural capabilities.

Pears - Babies love pears you morons!

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illustration: Sam Delacruz

My father’s stories always begin by comparing food from the land of plenty to that of his home, straying farther—eventually leaving our elaborately off balance dining room table and leading into the faintly lush paths of metropolitan Saigon. Teetering the table three times, he transforms the room into an outdoor market, a street of restaurant shanties built on a slope, a stand just for sugar cane drinks. His stories adopt a golden hue, perfected and withdrawn from truth, like all time-leaked memory. The size of the lobster then and there is the same as the lobster now and here.

For my father and I, food functions as a marinara between otherwise bland pasta noodles, but also as a salt for stories. Food, more so than any cauliflower stalk of brain association, bears the weight of emotion and memory. In the same way that food often brings joy, it can also carry the freshly squeezed acidity of pain.

Never is your favorite food less satisfying than when you are bawling and choking and spitting and trying to not swallow the drip from your nose. And all the subsequent times you eat that double bacon cheeseburger, that tacos al pastor, that profiterole, that Korean style chicken wing, you lose that connection to what originally made you love it so much. Fortunately, certain foods have the capability to heal all wounds—existing in our brainstomachs as fixed, unalterable globs. These foods are reminders of home, and sticky youth, like the saccharine sweetness of peanut butter that cements to the roof of one’s mouth. They excite in us a renewed passion, similar to the Twinkie stashed in a lunch bag packed by our mothers, or a propagating assurance that things will be fine, not unlike a daily dinner call delivered by our fathers.

My father reveals the love he has for my mother every time she cooks for him. He reveals it in the stories he tells, the words he chooses, the last grains of rice in his stomach. Irreparably, we entwine food with so many aspects of our lives, our palates dominated by slices of familiarity and family.

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Dream Fruits

Corn Dogs

Dreamt by Nick Hill, Illustrated by Liam Garner

fig 1. Fish made of oranges

fig 2. Tangerine alarm clock

fig 3. Water balloon apple

fig 4. Permanantly firm grapes

fig 5. Pre sliced and dried banana

fig 6. Watermelon with gold coin seeds

fig 7. Oprahcot

fig 8. Turn-into-Seth-Rogan berry

fig 9. Illuminati mind control kiwi

Employees (Left to Right): Samantha Delacruz (Front and Back Cover), Phoebe Randall, Ezra Edgerton, Tiffany Wong, Noah Asimow, Robin Roy (copy editor), Alex Kritikos, Raymond Siddiqi, Jordan Micus, Bode Faleti, Umair Hamid, Morley Musick, Ian McCann, Danish Noorani, Muhammad Shareef, Nirmal Shah (work in upcoming issue), Diego Rodriguez, Ahmed Akhtar, Celia Calder (work in upcoming issue), Ariel Miller, Natalia Cuevas (web video production), Michelle Bozenda, Billy Valasquez (web video production). Not Pictured: Liam Garner, Nora Hardy, Marcus McVane, Sandro Pineda (work in upcoming issue), Eric Tendian (web manager).

Check out our newly updated website:

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northsidebuffet com!

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Art: Sam Delacruz